One of the most innovative films of the 1990s, the poetic first feature from Zeinabu Irene Davis traces the parallel love stories of two black couples—in each case a deaf woman and a hearing man—in the early 1900s and 1990s as they face discrimination and the respective threats of tuberculosis and AIDS. To make the film accessible to deaf audiences, Davis employs sign language and a range of silent film techniques that in turn pay homage to the very first generation of black filmmakers.

Compensation 16mm print courtesy of UCLA Film & Television Archive

BAM Membership

Go to the movies just once a month and a BAM membership pays for itself.